Gathering of the Chosen (32 page)

The last thing she saw before she fell
unconscious was a glowing light before her that was walking toward
her, along with the sound of mechanical joints creaking. But she
soon stopped focusing on it when she completely lost
consciousness.

***

N
o way up. No way down. No way out.
And possibly no way to survive.

That was Carmaz's opinion of their
situation based on a cursory glance of the staircase in which they
stood. Behind them were the shadow tendrils of whatever was coming
after them, while ahead more shadow tendrils approached them at the
same speed.

Carmaz looked at his friends. Saia was
completely useless, because his friend didn't have any sort of
weapon or magical powers at all. He was jumping from one foot to
another, anxiously looking up and down the stairs as if that would
somehow help them get out of this situation alive. Carmaz
understood Saia's fear and worry, but all Saia's worrying did was
make Carmaz's nerves worse.

Tashir and Malya were still armed, but
Tashir was hauling Alira over his shoulder, while Malya carried the
Judge's Rulebook in both of her arms. Had the two been free, Carmaz
would have asked them to use their swords to cut them a path down
below, but because they weren't, they were no more useful in this
situation than he or Saia were.

As for Carmaz, he was sad to say that he
wasn't much better than Saia right now, if somewhat less worried
and anxious. He was weaponless and incapable of even the most basic
of magical spells. Carmaz may very well have been destined to
become the God of Humans someday, but that evidently did not mean
that Carmaz would get any actual magic abilities until then.

“Anyone got a plan?” said Saia, looking
around at them all with desperate eyes. “Any ideas at all?”

“I have an idea,” said Carmaz. He looked
at Tashir and Malya and held out his hands. “Give me Alira and give
Saia the Rulebook. You two can then use your makhimancy to clear a
path for us down to the bottom.”

“Are you certain that you can carry
Alira?” asked Tashir, glancing at the unconscious Judge hanging
over his shoulder. “She's quite heavy.”

“I'm strong,” said Carmaz. “And Saia can
carry the Rulebook because he's strong, too.”

“Very well,” said Tashir. “Here.”

Tashir gave Alira to Carmaz. Though the
Judge certainly did not appear to be a heavy lady, Carmaz found
that she weighed more than she looked when he put her over his
shoulder. She was like a bag of mud, a feeling Carmaz was familiar
with, seeing as he had had to drag bags of mud from the swamps back
on Ruwa whenever his village needed them.

Malya handed the Rulebook to Saia.
Although the Rulebook looked a lot lighter than Alira, Saia still
struggled to hold it. That made Carmaz wonder just how strong Malya
was, considering how she had been holding it just moments before
without showing the slightest strain.

“All right, Malya, are you ready?” said
Tashir as he held up his sword, which now glowed before him in the
shadows.

Malya nodded as she drew her double swords
out, which glowed like Tashir's blade. “Of course.”

“Then let's go,” said Tashir.

The two makhimancers began slashing at the
shadows with as much ferocity and speed as they could. They moved
faster than Carmaz had ever seen anyone move in his life, which
surprised him because Tashir and Malya had always seemed older to
him. He supposed that they must somehow keep in great shape.
Perhaps that was a requirement of makhimancy.

In any case, Carmaz was pleased to see
that the two were making some progress. With every slash, they tore
apart more shadows, allowing them to move forward a couple of
steps. Carmaz and Saia followed as closely behind as they could
without accidentally getting slashed by the two makhimancers.

But even with the progress that Tashir and
Malya made, the shadows behind them were still creeping up on all
of them due to the fact that there was no one to stop them. Carmaz
prayed that Tashir and Malya would cut them a long path to the
bottom quickly, but that was seeming increasingly unlikely now.

Especially when the shadows surged
forward, causing Tashir and Malya to jump backwards to avoid
getting consumed. This forced Carmaz and Saia to stop as well,
though Carmaz didn't lose too much hope until twin shadow tendrils
lashed out of the darkness at Tashir and Malya. Tashir tried to
block them, but his sword was knocked out of his hands and flew
into the darkness somewhere, while Malya managed to not only beat
the shadows back, but also retain her swords.

“Great,” said Saia, who was now huffing as
if the Rulebook weighed fifty pounds. “What do we do now? Neither
of you two would happen to know any other forms of magic we could
use to escape, would you?”

The two makhimancers shook their heads.
Tashir said, “No. Makhimancers tend to be very specialized mages,
so …”

“But we'll figure a way out, dear, don't
you worry,” said Malya. Then she added, “I hope.”

Carmaz looked over his shoulder as Tashir
and Malya drew closer to them. The shadows were so close now that
Carmaz suspected that it would only be minutes before he and the
others were engulfed by them. Now Carmaz didn't know much about
these shadows or what would happen if these shadows consumed him
and the others, but he did know that he was not in the mood to find
out personally.

Where are those damned gods?
Carmaz
thought, scowling as he looked up and down the stairs at the
approaching shadows.
They sure are taking their sweet time, if
they're doing anything at all about this.

Carmaz looked at Alira on his shoulder.
She was still unconscious, but he decided that they needed to
awaken her. If she could teleport the other godlings out of here,
then she could do the same to them if she was awake.

So Carmaz laid Alira on the steps,
prompting Saia to shout, “Carmaz, what are you doing? You're
supposed to carry her, not dump her!”

Carmaz ignored his friend's admonishments.
He shook Alira as hard as he could, saying, “Wake up! We don't have
time for this. You have to get up and you have to get up
now
.”

Unfortunately, Alira didn't even stir.
Carmaz hadn't realized how hard those shadows had hit her, but they
must have hit her hard. In fact, he wondered if she would ever wake
up again at all, considering how still and silent she was.

“Waking up Alira won't work,” said Tashir,
shaking his head. “She's out for good, as far as I can tell. We'd
do much better to figure out another way to escape.”

“How?” said Carmaz, looking up at Tashir
in annoyance. “We can't use your swords, seeing as you're disarmed,
and there's no way that Malya could cut through the shadows all by
herself.”

Tashir opened his mouth, but before he
could say anything, a chilling feminine voice from within the
shadows said,
Oh, how I enjoy the sound of despair in the voices
of you mortals. It exhilarates me.

“Who's there?” said Saia, looking around
the shadows in alarm. “Who just said that?”

The Void did,
said the voice, still
as chilling as before.
Not that it matters, seeing as you will
all be dead and consumed within the next few minutes anyway, but I
thought you deserved to know my name so you can speak of it in
despair in the last minutes of your life.

“The Void?” said Carmaz. He stopped and
looked at Saia. “Know what that is?”

Saia shrugged, while Tashir sighed and
said, “The Void is the darkness that lies beyond the edge of
Martir, not far from World's End, in fact. I should have recognized
this darkness for what it is. The Void invaded the Undersea not
long ago and my friends at the Undersea Institute told me all about
it.”

That I did,
said the Void, sounding
annoyed.
And I would have succeeded in destroying it if that god
and that half-god had not gotten in my way. But it doesn't matter,
because soon I will destroy not just the Undersea, but all of
Martir once more.

Carmaz thought about asking why the gods
weren't stopping her and how the Void had gotten here at all. But
with the shadows on all sides drawing closer, he decided that it
was more important to come up with a survival plan than ask
questions the Void would probably just ignore anyway.

“Okay, so what's the plan?” said Saia,
looking around at everyone again. “Run and hide?”

Tashir snorted and gestured at the Void's
shadows all around them. “Run and hide where? The Void will find us
no matter where we go. I am sorry to say, but I don't think there
is a way we can get out of here alive.”

“There must be,” said Malya, a hint of
fear in her voice. Her swords trembled slightly in her hands. “We
can't let despair overcome us. As long as we work together, we can
survive.”

Carmaz didn't have anything to add because
he had returned his attention to Alira. He was still shaking her,
trying to get her to wake up, but it seemed like no matter how hard
he shook her, Alira would not even stir. He was even starting to
believe that Alira might have somehow fallen into a coma, which
would explain why she wasn't waking up.

Think, Carmaz, think,
Carmaz
thought.
What could I do to wake her up that I haven't tried
yet? Hold on, I think I've got it.

Carmaz raised his hand and slapped Alira
straight across the face as hard as he could. Slapping her face was
actually quite painful. It was almost like slapping a brick wall,
which made him wonder just what the Powers had made Alira out
of.

But he soon forgot about the pain in his
hand when he saw Alira's eyes snap open. She then looked up at
Carmaz with shocked and confused eyes, as if she did not quite know
what Carmaz had done but was surprised by it anyway. Her eyes
looked slightly less severe without her glasses, though they still
didn't look very friendly to him.

“What … what happened?” said Alira,
shaking her head as she rubbed the spot on her face where Carmaz
had slapped her. “Did someone slap me?”

“Yes, I did,” said Carmaz, nodding. He
pointed at the darkness around them, which was so close now that he
could see literally nothing else beyond their tiny little circle.
“And if you don't do something fast, then the Void will kill us
all.”

“The Void?” said Alira. She sat up,
forcing Carmaz to back away slightly to give her room. She looked
around at the darkness around her and frowned. “This is against the
rules.”

Carmaz sighed heavily, but refrained from
hitting her again. “Yes, Judge, we know. That's why we awoke you,
so you could get us out of here.”

Do you really think I will just let you
five escape like that?
said the Void.
I'm not that stupid,
you know.

Without warning, a dozen shadow tendrils
shot out of the darkness toward them. But Alira raised her hand and
unleashed a barrier of light that surrounded all of them. The
shadow tendrils disintegrated as soon as they touched the barrier,
though Carmaz noticed how tired Alira looked from that effort
alone.

Clever,
said the Void.
But I
wonder how much longer you will be able to maintain that barrier.
Not much, I should think, considering how weak you are.

“She has a point,” said Alira through
gritted teeth. She was already starting to sweat, which glistened
in the light of the barrier. “I'm supposed to be a Judge, not a
fighter. I'm not as strong as the gods. I can barely hold on as
is.”

“Then why don't you just teleport us out
of here?” said Carmaz. “Don't you have enough energy to do that, at
least?”

“I do, but I would need to drop the
barrier first,” said Alira. “And the Void moves fast. She might be
able to move fast enough to kill us all before I can teleport us to
safety.”

“Do it anyway,” Carmaz said, glancing at
the shadows on the other side of the barrier, which were as thick
as storm clouds now. “I think we can escape if we move fast enough.
Everyone, grab—”

Carmaz was interrupted by a shattering
sound and Saia screaming. He looked in Saia's direction to see that
one of the shadow tendrils had broken through the barrier and
grabbed Saia around the neck. It was trying to drag him through the
hole in the barrier, but Saia was somehow managing to stand his
ground. But he was still moving closer and closer to the hole in
the barrier, so Carmaz ran over to save him before he was pulled in
entirely.

He wrapped his arms around Saia's body and
pulled as hard as he could, but he could feel his feet slipping
underneath him. They were both being dragged closer and closer to
the Void, despite Carmaz's best efforts to pull him back. He didn't
know what the Void would do to Saia or him exactly, but he doubted
that it would be anything good.

“Carmaz!” Saia screamed, his voice
sounding choked due to the tightness with which the Void held his
neck. “I can't breathe!”

“Hold on, Saia!” Carmaz shouted in return.
“Don't worry. I got you.”

Then Carmaz felt two strong arms wrap
around his waist and, looking over his shoulder, saw Tashir was
helping him save Saia. Grateful for Tashir's help, Carmaz then
returned his attention to saving Saia. He put even more effort into
pulling Saia back and could feel Tashir doing the same.

Saia's screams seemed to get louder with
every second, despite the fact that he was unable to breathe.
Carmaz didn't say anything, however, because he was so focused on
saving Saia that he didn't have any energy to speak.

But unfortunately, Carmaz could feel both
he and Tashir being dragged closer and closer to the Void's
darkness. Granted, Tashir's weight had slowed their movement
slightly, but it was still obvious that Saia was going to be
dragged into the shadows no matter what he or Tashir did. Carmaz
banished those thoughts from his mind, however, because they did
not help him do what he needed to do in order to save his
friend.